Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

History and calendars of emigration by sailing ship to North America from Cork Harbour, from 1815 to 1860. PART l CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS PART ll AN EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE PART lll CATALOGUE OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIPS

WESTWARD CORK MIGRATION BY SAIL 1815-1860 John Sutton 2025

Fig. 1: Cove of Cork.

Dr John Sutton is a retired physician who, as is so typical, developed an interest in family genealogy only after most of his elders had passed. Early investigations, after the death in 1997 of his father Thomas Sutton, documented previously ignored Cork Sutton origins in West Cork and extensive family associations with maritime trade. The second half of the 19 th century found many houses around Wellington Road, St Luke’s and Summerhill Road occupied by Sutton and extended Sutton mariner families. Thomas Sutton, whose grand- father, Abraham G Sutton1842-1906, had lived at Charlemont Terrace (Wellington Road) and later 2 Empress Place (Summerhill), was a man of keen curiosity, who would have greatly enjoyed the product of that research. John has been a contributor to the Clonakilty Historical and Archaeological Journal and authored a book relating to the Cork maritime community, 19 th Century Cork Sutton Mariners, Sailing Ships and Crews. Son of Dr Thomas Sutton of Sunday’s Well and Shelagh O’Connor of Lancashire, John’s early boyhood was spent Merseyside near Liverpool, where his father was a general practitioner until returning to a position in Killeagh, Co Cork. John was educated at Clongowes Wood College and graduated from University College Cork in 1968, when he moved to Michigan and soon met and married Cynthia Ann Smith in 1969. They made Massachusetts their permanent residence in 1973 and have five children and ten grandchildren. It is noteworthy that Dr Sutton, while having one surviving sister in Cork, has one brother living in Sussex and another residing near Sydney, New South Wales; the three brothers ultimately settled in the familiar emigrant destinations of North America, England and Australia. John Sutton can be contacted at sutt.john45@gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 John Sutton. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means: electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author.

Westward Cork Migration by Sail Presented here is a twofold history: the pattern and development of emigrant sailing ship traffic to North America from Cork Harbour in the period from the end of the Napoleonic Wars through the years of the Great Famine; and, from the standpoint of the emigrants carried by these ships, the face of the rapidly changing North America they came to engage with. The ports of British North America (the future Canada), above all Quebec and St John in New Brunswick, were the major destinations for ships from Cork up until the Famine, when major eastern US ports of arrival, particularly New York City and Boston assumed the greater importance. Wherever they first arrived on the eastern seaboard, large numbers of those departing from Cork and elsewhere in Ireland participated in the continent’s opening westwards, travelling by flatboat down the Ohio for the Mississippi River Valley to settle new states and territories in earlier years, joining migration further west by wagon on the Oregon Trail in later years, or making the more immediate contribution of vital labour for nation-building, such as the construction of major canals that would link the Atlantic, via the Hudson River and the St Lawrence Seaway, to the Great Lakes. Crossing the Atlantic was but a prelude to further adventure stretching sometimes as far as the Pacific. This work follows the same author’s 19th Century Cork Sutton Mariners, Sailing Ships and Crews (2022). It contains in tabular form extensive ship-by- ship details for the period covered, as well as images, maps and diagrams which provide the reader with a sense of the transformative experience encountered by those who sailed forever from Cork.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES PREFACE

PART l CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60 ----------------1 PART ll AN EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE -----------------------------------------------------87 INTRODUCTION Chapter 1A Evolving changes in BNA (British North America) up to 1820 ------------ 91 1B Evolving changes in the USA up to 1820 ------------------------------------- 93 Chapter 2A Pre-Famine Developments in North America 1820-45 -------------------- 102 2B Further Developments in North America 1846-60 ------------------------- 113 Chapter 3 Emigrant Arrivals at North American Ports 1815-60 ---------------------- 119 3A Emigrant Arrivals at BNA Ports 1815-60 ------------------------------------ 119 3B Emigrant Arrivals at USA Ports 1815-60 -------------------------------------121 Irish Emigrant Dispersion ------------------------------------------------------ 129 4A Irish Emigrant Dispersion in BNA -------------------------------------------- 129 4B Irish Emigrant Dispersion in the USA ---------------------------------------- 135 Chapter 5A The Aftermath in BNA --------------------------------------------------------- 141 5B The Aftermath in the USA ----------------------------------------------------- 142 PART lll CATALOGUE OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIPS ---------------------------------149 Chapter 1 Catalogue ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151 Chapter 2 Commentaries: A. Cork Emigrant Ship Routes ----------------------------- 249 Chapter 4

B. Cork Emigrant Ship Fleet -------------------------------- 252 C. Cork Quaker Merchants ---------------------------------- 253 D. Of Coffin Ships and Wrecks ----------------------------- 255

REFERENCE LIST -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 257

LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Cove of Cork. Fig. 2. Passage West: The Original Port of Cork, circa 1848-50. Fig. 3. The Port of Quebec. Fig. 4. Liverpool. Ships on the Mersey. Fig. 5. Wrecked on the Ice. Fig. 6. Merchants Quay Cork. Fig. 7. UK Emigration to British North America. Fig. 8. Steamships Nimrod and Athlone Leaving Cork. Fig. 9. Emigrants on the Quay in Cork.

Fig.10. The Port of Boston (Courtesy of the Library of Congress). Fig. 11. The Port of New York at South Street on the East River. Fig. 12. New Orleans Waterfront on the Mississippi. Fig. 13. The Liverpool Docks. Fig. 14. Laying the Pacific Railroad. Fig. 15. Disturnell’s New Map of the United States and Canada, 1850. Fig. 16. Quebec on the St Lawrence. Fig. 17. Ohio River Flatboat. Fig. 18. Chesapeake and Ohio Canal - Potomac River from Washington to Cumberland.

Fig. 19. Cincinnati on the Ohio, 1800. Fig. 20. North America Waterways. Fig. 21. Erie Canal Boats. Fig. 22. Great Lake Navigation Engineering Challenges. Fig. 23. Chicago 1820. Fig. 24. The Mississippi and St Louis Missouri.

Fig. 25. Oregon Trail Map. Fig. 26. Grosse Île, 1847. Fig. 27. The Port of Boston.

Fig. 28. The Port of New York. Fig. 29. The Port of Philadelphia. Fig. 30. The Port of New Orleans. Fig. 31. The Port of Montreal. Fig. 32. St John’s Newfoundland.

Fig. 33. Port of New York from Maiden Lane. Fig. 34. New York City from Brooklyn Heights. Fig. 35. Queenstown Cork.

Fig. 36. James Attridge – Particulars of Service. Fig. 37. Maurice Neil - Particulars of Service. Fig. 38. William Carroll - Particulars of Service. Fig. 39. Timothy Gorman – Master Certificate. Fig. 40. John Leonard - Particulars of Service. Fig. 41. Edward Sullivan – Master Certificate Renewal Request. Fig. 42. James Betty - Particulars of Service. Fig. 43. Charles Daly - Particulars of Service. Fig. 44. Denis Reardon - Particulars of Service. Fig. 45. John Sedgwick Savery - Particulars of Service. Fig. 46. Benjamin Askey - Particulars of Service. Fig. 47. Arthur Herbert - Particulars of Service. Fig. 48. George Havelock - Particulars of Service. Fig. 49. Robert William Peirce - Particulars of Service.

III

Fig. 50. John Dunn - Particulars of Service. Fig. 51. Henry Bowman - Particulars of Service. Fig. 52. George William Slorach - Particulars of Service. Fig. 53. David Murphy - Particulars of Service. Fig. 54. Thomas Robertson - Particulars of Service. Fig. 55. Richard Hughes - Particulars of Service. Fig. 56. James Goonin - Particulars of Service.

Fig. 57. David Jones - Particulars of Service. Fig. 58. Henry Hobbs - Particulars of Service. Fig. 59. William Barry - Particulars of Service. Fig. 60. John Coughlin - Particulars of Service. Fig. 61. Michael Linehan - Particulars of Service. Fig. 62. William Henry Deane Hargrave - Particulars of Service. Fig. 63. John Keohan - Particulars of Service. Fig. 64. Thomas Howell - Particulars of Service. Fig. 65. John Gibbons - Particulars of Service. Fig. 66. Thomas Walsh - Particulars of Service. Fig. 67. Jeremiah Casey - Particulars of Service. Fig. 68. John Ronayne - Particulars of Service. Fig. 69. George Mouncey Wheatly Atkinson - Particulars of Service.

Fig. 70. William Garde - Particulars of Service. Fig. 71. Thomas Prosser - Particulars of Service. Fig. 72. Benjamin Matson - Particulars of Service. Fig. 73. William Errington - Particulars of Service. Fig. 74. Emmanuel Murray - Particulars of Service.

Fig. 75. William Sutton - Particulars of Service. Fig. 76. Charles Pennington - Particulars of Service. Fig. 77. Joseph Young - Particulars of Service. Fig. 78. Francis Wemyss - Particulars of Service. Fig. 79. Thomas Meredith - Particulars of Service. Fig. 80. John Mills - Particulars of Service. Fig. 81. James Guest - Particulars of Service. Fig. 82. George Stewart - Particulars of Service. Fig. 83. John Twohig - Particulars of Service. Fig. 84. William Martin - Particulars of Service. Fig. 85. James Hughes Tunbridge - Particulars of Service. Fig. 86. Mathew Murphy - Particulars of Service. Fig. 87. Thomas Cooper Clarke - Particulars of Service.

Fig. 88. The Port of Quebec. Fig. 89. Queenstown Sunset.

PREFACE After the Napoleonic Wars, Irish migration to North America was minor until the late 1820s when, well before the Great Famine, Irish transatlantic migration gradually increased until the early 1840s witnessed the more rapid growth that prevailed until 1854. In this work I have sought to document the voyages made by Cork-based, and non-Cork- based, sailing ships that carried emigrants from the Port of Cork to North America (British North America and the United States) between 1815 and 1860. This period was familiar to me from previous Cork merchant sailing ship research. This was a period when transatlantic travel was significantly more unpredictable and dangerous than during the subsequent era of the steamship. The relative scale of emigration during this period can best be appreciated by United States data, which documents 35 million immigrants 1815-1914, yet just 5 million (14.29%) prior to 1860, the author’s approximate period of investigation. Two million of these five million were Irish (38.66%) (Cohn 2009, 24-31). During the Famine-inflated migration years of 1845-55, 2 million Irish emigrated: 1.5 million went to the United States, 300,000 to Canada

and 300,000 ended up in Great Britain, many in the Liverpool area (McMahon 2021, 4-5). Most historians accept that at least 450,000 Irish migrated to British North America before the Famine, and in so doing created a settlement grid, kinship networks, and migration chains that pre-dated the catastrophe of the Great Famine (McGowan, 2023). UCC (University College Cork) statistics are compatible with these figures: 800,000- 1,000,000 Irish emigrants to North America 1815-45, with roughly half settling in Canada and half in the US https://www.ucc.ie/en/emigre/history/ ). McGowan (2023) and McMahon (2021) combined figures document 750,000 Irish emigrants arriving in British North America (BNA) by 1855, of which many moved quickly to the USA, making it reasonable to consider that three quarters of all Irish emigrants to North America prior to 1856 ended up in the USA and just one quarter in BNA, as has been suggested by William Smyth (Smyth 2012, 11): About a million people had left the country in the two decades between 1821 and 1841. This annual level of emigration continued up to 1845-46; then as famine intensified, the exodus from Ireland became an unstoppable flood. Close on a million desperate Irish people emigrated to overseas countries between 1846 and March 1851 with close on a further half million leaving Ireland by the end of 1852. In addition, between a quarter and one-third of a million famine-stricken people ended up in the slums of Liverpool, Glasgow, London, and other British cities. By 1891, four out of ten of the total Irish-born population were then living abroad. For my research, I reviewed emigrant sailing ship voyages between 1815 and 1856 from the Port of Cork to the British North American ports of Quebec, Halifax Nova Scotia and St John, New Brunswick, and from the Port of Cork to the US ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans. These years were chosen because as stated above, Cork emigration was minor during and directly after the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and decreased significantly after the 1815-56 period. The eight named ports were the main ports of disembarkation in North America during that period. SOURCES Cork immigrant ship departures and destinations were extracted from Cove/Queenstown Shipping Intelligence/News reports found in the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, Cork Constitution, and the Cork Examiner as available between 1823 and 1856 . These records are far from complete such that, during some long periods, ship arrivals and departures were so out of balance that one might worry as to whether space was left in the Harbour. Furthermore, ship arrivals from Cork at North American ports frequently lacked documentation of their departure from Cork. British North American ship arrivals from Cork were extracted from The Ships List. This is an online compilation of ship arrivals at Quebec 1817-47, Halifax, Nova Scotia 1815-38 and St John, New Brunswick 1815-38 as derived from regional newspapers. The Ships List https://www.theshipslist.com/ data for arrivals at Quebec lacked records for 1843-45. Quebec ship arrivals for 1847 are complemented by the book 1847 Grosse Île (Charbonneau & Sévigny 1997). Ship arrivals at US ports from Cork were extracted from online microfilm roll review of Boston Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists 1820-91 (M277), New York Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M237), Philadelphia Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M245), Baltimore

Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M255) and New Orleans Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M259). While not all these records have survived and some were poorly legible, this https://www.ancestry.co.uk generated site was invaluable. Boston ship arrivals are complemented by D.F. Johnson’s book Irish Emigration to New England through the Port of St John. New York ship arrival information was supplemented by the customer database of the Emigrant Industrial Saving Bank, which served the Irish emigrant community in New York. Some assurance of early Irish Baltimore arrivals (or lack of) was gained from a book, Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore 1820-34 by the Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc. (Tepper (ed.): 1982). UK Masters’ and Mates’ Certification documents and UK National Archives Merchant Navy Seamen Registers also proved useful in ship and port recognition and for complementary data. Useful information about the Cork sailing ships and their crews was gained from prior research by the author, that can be found online: Sutton, J., Nineteenth-Century Cork Sutton Mariners, Sailing Ships and Crews, 2022. When transatlantic emigrant ships departing the Port of Cork could be documented with Cork registration in Lloyd’s Register for the voyage year, the prior year, or the subsequent year, they were considered Cork-based ships (allowing for vagaries in the record-keeping) and so tabulated on the A-Lists in Part l. Ships from an outside or unknown port and sailing from Cork have been listed below the tabulated Cork-based ships on the separate B-List for that voyage year (as have some incidental sailings of interest and relevance to Cork). In PART l the A-List for Calendar of Cork Emigration Ship Sailings tabulates information numerically in the last right vertical column using the following Source Information Code : 1. Cove/Queenstown Shipping News. Departures 2. The Ships List - arrivals at Quebec, St John, Halifax

3. Boston Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists 1820-91 (M277) 4. New York Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M237) 5. Philadelphia Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M425) 6. Baltimore Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M255) 7. New Orleans Passenger Arrivals and Crew Lists (M259) 8. Lloyd’s Register/CLIP 9. UK Masters’ and Mates’ Certificates 10. UK National Archives 11. 1847 Grosse Ile (Quebec) 12. Irish Emigration to NE (Boston) through the Port of St John, NB, 1841-9 (Johnson) 13. EISB Database (New York) 14. Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore (1820-34) (Tepper) 15. Miscellaneous Sources, such as PEI Ships database

VII

In the background information for this paper, I have avoided discussion of circumstances that might have led to emigrant desires to depart from Ireland (the so-called ‘push’ of the ‘push-pull’ factors guiding emigrant decisions), since so much has been written on this topic, and individual circumstance varied. North American port of disembarkation (the ‘pull’) was determined by destination appeal and voyaging options. I have endeavored to get into the mind-set of the emigrant in Part ll, ‘An Emigrant Perspective’, through a chronological summary of publicized political and socio-economic events in North America that may have influenced emigrant decisions; events sometimes already described in Part l. Newsworthy facts and information are liberally intertwined within both Parts l and ll, sometimes with a duplication that is inevitable to facilitate those readers with interest in only a limited perusal of the work. For some the ship may have been the primary determinant of destination. For others it may have been the destination. Emigrant sailing ship choices were based on reputation, timing, risk, financial cost and comfort. All expected a journey of several weeks traversing the Atlantic that would be exciting, perhaps dangerous and probably unpleasant. Addendum: The Ships List site, www. theshiplist.com , web site was removed in August 2024 – hopefully just for a website upgrade.

John Sutton 2025

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: My appreciation, first to my wife Cyndi for her assistance and encouragement in pursuing and developing a major theme of this paper – Cork emigrant sailing ship voyages. And to my brother Michael for his enthusiastic support in advancing a second theme – the historical and socio-economic background of host countries willing to accept our Irish migrants. Also, my gratitude to the late Gillian Boazman for her help, despite declining health, in editing the earlier part of this work. Subsequent thanks to both Michael and Cyndi for assuming Gillian’s role in both editing and proofreading. Last, and far from least, my thanks to my daughter Meaghan and son-in-law Trevor Bryant for their major assistance when my document, exceeding the capabilities of my computer program, conspired against me and commenced to self-destruct.

VIII

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

PART l PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60 Introduction Shipping was disorganized at the close of the 1803-15 Napoleonic Wars and the 1812-14 War of 1812, concerning US maritime rights which were violated by Britain. Ticket prices for transatlantic voyaging were prohibitive for a few years. However, the robust timber trade between British North America and Britain and Ireland found vessels with space to fill on the return trips to Quebec or St John with ticket prices in the 2–3 pounds range. On the other hand, comparable tickets to New York went for 5-7 pounds and were too high for many. As the century progressed tickets to the US became more competitive while other factors, such as head taxes to care for indigents and the sick, produced variations in prices, and protests from shipowners. Protestation arose because added costs lowered profits unless passed on to the customer, thereby making those passenger routes less appealing. Poorly delineated dates of departure were another headache for passengers, as ships tried to maximize their cargoes. In earlier years newspapers advertised vessel sailing dates that were often delayed and sometimes cancelled, adding unplanned costs of typical dockside crowded, often unhygienic rooming houses, and increasing potential exposure to diseases. Diseases easily spread in the close, poorly ventilated, foul-smelling, converted holds of leaky, wooden, rat-infested ships. Indeed, sadly for travelers, rats demonstrated an unrelenting ability to stowaway on sailing ships, adding to travel woes. Port cities such as Cork, prior to the motor car and the electric tram, became congested with hundreds of cart and carriage horses, adding a prodigious amount of dung to road refuse, and causing both a monstrous problem for streetcleaners and for street navigation by pedestrians forced to tolerate the filth. Such tolerance and ignorance about communicative diseases may explain Cork’s lax urban sewage management which, challenged by its marshy flood-prone city center, permitted the easy blend of human effluent with the tidal River Lee. Clean drinking water, once nicely facilitated by the Cork Waterworks on the Lee Road, became inadequate in underprivileged sections of town during the population explosion prior to the Famine, leading to recurrent epidemics of water-contamination associated diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever (bubonic plague, as distinct from typhus which is spread by lice and fleas). Cork and the London of Dickens in those times shared similar problems, and would experience similar consequences, until Yorkshire’s John Snow, epidemiologist and anesthetist, traced the source of a large cholera epidemic in 1854 to contaminated water at London’s Broad Street Pump. Cholera spread was previously thought to be airborne. The option of sailing on ‘packet ships’ with definitive dates of departure from the 1830s onward would present a great convenience and improved safety for the traveler of means. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (and even the seventeenth) ships carrying British mail packets were called packet ships. In 1818 three Quakers in New York, Marshall, Thompson and Wright formed the Black Ball Shipping Line, mainly to transport cotton from New York to Liverpool. The ships were moderately large and carried passengers. They determined to run with definite departure dates and offered spare cargo space to other merchants, and the idea caught on. Out of respect for the timeliness of the British mail packet ships they also called their regularly departing fleet of ships, packet ships. Their success led to enlargement

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

of their fleet and emulation by other shipping companies, such that by the 1830s passenger packet ships became an attractive option for transatlantic emigration. Finally, as the century progressed, the financial burden of the journey was eased sometimes by the subsidization of landowners or more commonly through chain migration, with tickets and assistance provided by family members already settled in North America (also influencing destination). Many captains were decent men who cared for their passengers, their ships, their crews and their reputations, and were sometimes publicly commended in the newspapers; others were less caring, and sometimes passengers suffered the consequence. Standards of care (regulations) for transatlantic passenger safety in both the US and BNA were adopted, and repeatedly manipulated, during the century. They typically improved in the face of atrocities and weakened in the face of declining profits. These standards pertained to conditions in the passenger quarters, food, and water. One standard repeatedly debated was the need for a ship’s doctor, which had become a requirement on Australian penal voyages, but not obligatory and therefore rare for transatlantic emigrant voyages during the period of this study (1815-56). Doctors may not have possessed reliable treatments at the time for the diseases, but (unlike the captains) they could supply their undivided attention, ascertain sensible passenger social organization, assure favorable hygiene, optimize the ventilation in passenger quarters, advocate for adequate nutrition and hydration for the passengers, quarantine the sick and interface between the passengers and the captain. The ship’s doctor had ultimate authority over passengers, second only to the captain. Passenger Ship Standards established for BNA and the US, and their application, impacted voyage costs. Ship’s captain and sometimes doctor interaction with passengers could and did impact the emigrant experience. Both cost and reported prior emigrant experiences were factors that would influence those in Ireland waiting their turn to follow.

THE CALENDAR

Fig. 2: Passage West: The Original Port of Cork c. 1848–50 (Photo courtesy of James Murphy, the Passage West Maritime Museum).

1815 A-LIST (Cork-registered ships departing the Port of Cork) Ship Captain Cork Dep. Arrival

Voyage

Emigrants Source

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

B-LIST (Other ships departing the Port of Cork) Fame

Possibly of Greenock: arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 11 Aug with passengers.

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * The Treaty of Ghent, terminating the War of 1812 (1812-14) between the USA and Great Britain, was signed in Ghent 24 Dec 1814 and President James Madison exchanged the signed copies with the British Ambassador 17 Feb 1815, returning both sides to their pre-war boundaries. Pensacola was returned to Spanish Florida, but the US retained Spanish West Florida and the Port of Mobile. Britain returned captured parts of Maine to the US and a broad understanding of the border between British North America (BNA) and the USA was confirmed. British pro-war sentiment persisted in public against the USA, but British merchants were anxious to reestablish normal international trade, profitability, and peace on the high seas. Although British North Americans would continue to fear US expansionism, the Treaty of Ghent would hold up well throughout the nineteenth century. End of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) War ended with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in June 1815. Exiled to the island of Saint Helena, Napoleon would die there six years later. 1816 A-LIST Ship Captain Cork Dep. Arrival Voyage Emigrants Source

B-LIST Hibernia

– (port unknown) arrived at Halifax from Cork 2 Nov with 105 farmers and mechanics and their families. – of Philadelphia arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 11 Nov with passengers.

Delaware

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax, one of the greatest natural harbours in the world, became a major strategic base for the British navy and military following the American Revolutionary War (1875-83). The Halifax Naval Yard serviced the North American Squadron and supplied masts and spars to the Royal Navy. The Yard, a significant source of employment during the Napoleonic Wars and American War of 1812, would continue to provide service and employment to the Navy throughout the century. However, the wartime press gang activity in and around Halifax and Nova Scotia was deeply resented. This resentment was similarly felt by the locals of Kinsale in Ireland when they were similarly impressed. Thuillier also states: …life at sea was difficult, uncomfortable, and particularly cruel, aboard fighting ships. The crews were subjected to severe discipline with punishment meted out frequently by means of flogging at the

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

end of a cat-o’-nine-tails or the ultimate sanction of execution by hanging from a fore yard arm. At the end of the eighteenth century the full muster for the British Navy stood at 100,000 men, which represented the largest number among seafaring nations. Of the total it is estimated that one third were Irish and 50 per cent were reluctant seafarers, who had been forced or press ganged into service (Thuillier, 2014, 63.64). Residents of Halifax were firm believers in self-government and Nova Scotia would be the first colony to achieve responsible government in 1848, followed by the Province of Canada later that year. Responsible government in Canada was the Parliamentary Democracy that gradually replaced Colonial Government rule, subjecting the function of government to the will of a majority of the elected representatives in parliament.

1817 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep.

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants

Source

AID

G Forster

Quebec 12 Aug

8 wks.

16 settlers

2 8

B-LIST Ship Albion Ship Alpha Brig Lord Wellington Brig Active Brig Comet

– (port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Cork (38 d) 3 Jun with 20 passengers. – of Philadelphia arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 30 Jul with passengers. – (port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Cork (13 wks.) 13 Aug with 69 settlers. – of Philadelphia arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 25 Oct with passengers. – (port unknown) arrived at Halifax from Cork 13 Dec with 30 passengers.

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Londonderry Emigration in 1817

Four vessels carried 669 passengers to Halifax from Londonderry, while another 230 from Londonderry were saved after the wreck of the Lord Nelson near Shelburne NS. More modest numbers arrived from Coleraine, Belfast, Newry, Dublin and Waterford ( The Ships List ). Londonderry held a close trade relationship with Philadelphia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, importing flaxseed and often departing with emigrants. Commonly Philadelphia-bound ships from Londonderry and Belfast during this 1816-56 study period carried large groups of emigrants; like the above four vessels that arrived in Halifax. * Erie Canal construction commences Ground was first broken on 4 July 1817 at Rome NY, promising ease of transport between New York and Buffalo. This engineering marvel of its day would, in 1825, produce a tenfold reduction in the trans-shipment cost of goods from New York to Lake Erie (Part ll). * Emigration Considerations Relative populations of Ireland and North America (USA and BNA) in the early 1800s. Ireland’s population was 5.57 million in 1806, reaching 6.8 million in 1821. The USA, 5.3 million in 1801. BNA in 1806 had just 430,000 residents - not reaching 3 million until the 1850s.

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

The following table demonstrates the distribution of the 430,000 residents of 1806 across BNA, and the impact of subsequent European (mostly British) migration up until 1860.

1806

1830

1840

1850

1860

(French) Lower Canada (British) Upper Canada Nova Scotia/ Cape Breton

250,000

500,267

629,943

835,540

1,106,666

70,718.

210,437

436,436

830,225

1,395,222

65,000.

153,218

202,820

268,481

330,689

New Brunswick

35,000

91,812

131,040

187,026

233,727

Newfoundland 26,000

69,610 27,244

83,343 45,144

99,786 68,037

124,608 80,648

Prince Edward Island

9,676

TOTAL

430,394

1,052,588

1,528,726

2,289,095

3,271,560

Canadian population: 1806 (during Napoleonic Wars), from Britannica, and 1830-60, from MacGregor’s interpolated stats.

Quebec was by far the main BNA port of entry for emigrants, who mostly moved southwest towards the dispersal hub of Montreal, where they had the option of travelling west up the Ottawa River Valley, further southwest along the St Lawrence to Kingston on Lake Ontario with several more days by ship to Toronto, or south to the USA. The major BNA population growth was in Upper Canada, which could also be conveniently reached via the Port of New York on completion of the Erie Canal in 1825.

Fig. 3: The Port of Quebec

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

1818

A-LIST

Ship

Captain A Young Donohue J Crawley

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage

Emigrants

Source

LADY HAMILTON NELSON NORTH STAR

Quebec 30 Jun 1818 Quebec 2 Aug 1 Quebec 29 Aug Philadelphia 7 Sep

42 d

7 officers 167 men 12 settlers

2 8

61 d 56 d

39 settlers 15 settlers passengers

2 8 2 8 5 8

AURORA

William Harris

B-LIST Prince Coburg – (port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Cork via Boston (50 d) 7 Jun with 15 settlers, ‘taken to Boston by force by the passengers.’ Had the captain perchance tried to bring some Boston-bound passengers to Quebec? Superior – ( port unknown) arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 24 Jul with passengers. Brunswick – of London arrived at Quebec from Cork (45 d) 29 Jul with 230 settlers.

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Halifax Emigrants

A moderate number of passengers (100-250) arrived at Halifax from each of the ports of Belfast, Newry, Dublin, and Waterford ( The Ships List ). Halifax, Nova Scotia was the third emigration port of importance in BNA, after Quebec and St John, New Brunswick. * USA adds new States The House of Representatives of the United States passed Acts, authorizing the Missouri Territory, west of the Mississippi River, and the Illinois Territory, lying east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River, to form constitutions, so they might be admitted into the Union as States. The State of Missouri in three decades would become the prime starting point of the Oregon Trail, one of the greatest land migrations in history. 1819 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants

Source

MARSHLAND John Ditchburn

Quebec 3 May Philadelphia 22 Jul 1819 Quebec 27 Jul Quebec 11 Sep Quebec 13 Sep

29 d

8 passengers 2 8

JAMES FITZPATRICK

John Salter

passengers

5 8

BROTHERS

James Young

46 d

44 settlers 52 settlers 4 settlers

2 8 2 8 2 8

MARSHLAND John Ditchburn

8 wks.

BROTHERS

James Young

44 d

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

B-LIST Amiable Martha

– (port unknown) arrived at Philadelphia from Cork 22 Feb with passengers. – of Liverpool arrived at Quebec from Cork (65 d) 27 Jul with 69 settlers. – (port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Cork 25 Sep with 13 settlers.

Brig Mercator

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * The Quebec Shipping Season

Ran typically from May to September due to winter river ice. Sailing ships from Great Britain generally managed two voyages per season with space for passengers outbound and returning with timber. Quebec emigrants were generally described in the early 1800s as settlers, perhaps in anticipation of rural settlement. Cork emigrants commonly arrived, with the notable exception of Peter Robinson’s 1823/25 settlements, in smaller groups. * Other Halifax Arrivals A moderate number of passengers (100-250) arrived at Halifax in 1819 from each of the ports of Londonderry, Dublin, Waterford and Kinsale ( The Ships List ). * Florida Territory The Transcontinental Treaty, ceding Spanish territory in Florida to the US, resulted from an aggressive land-grab by the US with the enthusiastic assistance of Andrew Jackson. Jackson had not forgiven Spain for sympathizing with the British in the War of 1812 (See Part ll). 1820 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants

Source

SARAH

E H Frank J Bernard J Rogers

Quebec 5 Jun Baltimore 30 Jun Baltimore 30 Jun 1820 Quebec 28 Jul Quebec 19 Sep 1820 Quebec 30 Sep Baltimore 31 Dec

43 d

98 settlers

2 8

MEDFORD JOHN BALKELY EFFORT JOHN HOWARD BROTHERS MEDFORD

passengers 8 14 passengers 8 14

W Farrant

50 d 39 d

108 settlers 2 8

J Smith

11 Aug

9 settlers

2 8

James Young

17 Aug

43 d

4 settlers

2 8

J Bernard

passengers 8 14

B-LIST Ann

– (port unknown) arrived at Baltimore from Cork 30 Sep with passengers. –

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * British North American Colonies Unite. Cape Breton Island Coal (1820). The Colony of Cape Breton Island was merged into the Colony of Nova Scotia. This move, by royal proclamation, was considered unconstitutional by the islanders and caused many years of resentment. Nova Scotia had been divided into New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

Cape Breton Island in 1784 to placate the newly arrived British Loyalists who disliked the politics of Halifax and, having fled from the US, desired a more traditional British socio- political environment for New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island, long known for massive coal deposits in and offshore, would see major mining development in the 1820s (see Part ll). 1821 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants

Source

AMICUS

J Norton

Halifax 25 May Quebec 12 Sep Quebec 19 Sep 1821 Baltimore 30 Sep

43 d

98 emigrants 2 8

EARL TALBOT W Batters

12 Jul 20 Aug

1 settler 20 settlers

2 8 2 8

SIR JAMES KEMPT MEDFORD

William Stewart J Bernard

passengers

8 14

B-LIST Ship Margaret

– of Philadelphia arrived at Philadelphia from Bristol via Cork 19 Feb with passengers. – ( port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Ilfracombe via Cork 2 June (40 d) with 120 settlers. – of Liverpool arrived at Baltimore from Cork 30 Jun with passengers. -- of Dublin arrived at Quebec from Cork 28 Jul (57 d) with 140 settlers.

Brig Grace

Athens

Brig Robert Nelson

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Downturn in Newfoundland Fishing Industry Letter to Sir James Kempt, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, from Sir Charles Hamilton, Governor of St John’s, Newfoundland, 8 Dec 1821 warned of an influx of Irish from Newfoundland because of a downturn in the fishing industry there. Newfoundland provided seasonal work and had been quite barren and uninviting during the winter months, such that many Irish emigrants on the island became ‘two-boaters’, sailing on to other parts of British North America or the USA. The economy diversified with time, with land-based fisheries, winter trapping, seal hunting and boatbuilding, providing year-long job opportunity. * Lachine Canal: Commissioners request Bids for Construction The Lachine rapids, upstream of Montreal, presented a major barrier requiring lengthy portage and preventing the direct access of ocean vessels to Kingston on Lake Ontario, an economic and military handicap for BNA. That handicap would be removed with the opening of a 13.4 km. canal and lock waterway in 1825. Five hundred laborers would be employed constructing the canal, many of them from Ireland. Despite the Treaty of Ghent, many in BNA were concerned about US expansionism and further strategic canals were in the works, including the Welland and the Rideau, which would provide major challenges due to their lengths and elevation differentials; they too would employ many more Irish migrants (See Part ll).

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

1822 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants Source

FIDELITY

W Lilburn

13 Apr

Quebec 31 May 1822

190 settlers

2 8

UNION

Robert Patterson William Stewart

New York 2 Jun 1822

26 emigrants

4 8

SIR JAMES KEMPT

15 Apr

Quebec 12 Jun 1822 Quebec 6 Jul 1822 Quebec 8 Jul 1822 New York 16 Aug 1822 Quebec 21 Aug Quebec 10 Sep New York 21 Sept 1822 Quebec 28 Aug Quebec 12 Oct 1822

255 settlers 104 settlers

2 8

EARL TALBOT W Batters

17 May

2 8

GEORGE & ELIZABETH

L Rennison

23 May

82 settlers 2 8

GRAND TURK John O’Hara

1 emigrant 4 8

TRUE BLUE MARGARET

Hodgson

26 Jun

63 settlers 2 8 25 settlers 2 8 38 settlers 4 8

J. Fox

47d

JOHN & ADAM EFFORT

J. R. Tabor

W. Farrant

27 Jul 20 Aug

7 settlers 3 settlers

2 8 2 8

SIR JAMES KEMPT

William Stewart

B-LIST Brig Stanton

– (port unknown) arrived at Quebec from Cork 31 May (35 d) with 55 settlers.

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Famine in Ireland and the RIC

The Irish famine of 1822 was caused by a partial potato crop failure in Connacht and southwest Munster, leading to an increase in agrarian agitation: the Whiteboys and Ribbonmen. The British government’s reaction came in the form of public works projects, the Insurrection Act of February 1822, and the Irish Constabulary Act of August 1822, forming a national police force – the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Overpopulation and lack of job opportunities stimulated further conversation about assisted Irish emigration and resettlement plans which would include Peter Robinson settling an Irish contingent from Cork in Upper Canada in 1823. This argument was put forward for assisted emigration: …for example, if a redundant population be one cause and a principal one of the disorders in Ireland, it would be a great benefit to the state to discharge that surplus; but it is essential to the nature of a redundant population that it is and ever will be unable to discharge itself. Besides, it would be better in every way to expend money in sending out and settling on unoccupied land, a great redundant population, than to expend nearly as much in maintaining a military force, and supporting extraordinary judicial proceedings, to reduce the number by the sword or the gibbet ( Montreal Herald 22 Jun 1822-The Ships List ).

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

* BNA Settler Arrivals The number recorded for 1822 in the Canadian sessional papers, for all British North American Colonies, was 16,013 ; an increase of about 3,000 over 1821. The Montreal Gazette reports in excess of 10,000 for the port of Quebec in 1822. Emigration from Irish ports to Quebec comprised by far the largest number, approximately 7,670. The above Canadian sessional papers site is provided by The Ships List and offers the reader useful UK emigration totals for BNA, the US, and Australia from 1815 to 1860 for perusal (the same list can be found in the 1860 US Census Report). 1823 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage

Emigrants

Source

CERES

J Walker

11 Apr

Quebec 22 May 1823 Quebec 25 May 1823 PEI 12 Jun Quebec 3 Jul New York 26 Apr 1823 Quebec 31 Aug 1823 Quebec 5 Sep Quebec 27 Sep 1823 Quebec 4 Oct

67 settlers

1 2 8

SIR JAMES KEMPT GENERAL ELLIOT HOWARD

William Stewart J Frank

24 Apr

118 settlers

2 8

3 May

30 settlers/113 passengers

2 8 15

Wm Stocking

emigrants

4 8

HEBE

W Hare

8 Jul

51 d

287 settlers + Dr J Dickson 134 settlers

2 8

ALCHYMIST J Stevens

57 d

2 8 2 8

SIR JAMES KEMPT

William Stewart

13 Aug

13 settlers

ST CHARLES J Leslie

30 Aug

10 settlers

2 8

B-LIST Ship William

– of Liverpool arrived at New York from Cork 26 Apr with emigrants. – of London arrived at Quebec 2 Sept from Cork with 291 settlers and Mr. P Robinson.

Stakesby

RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Peter Robinson’s First Supervised Emigration Group

Peter Robinson, a member of Upper Canada’s legislative assembly, supervised the emigration of over 2,500 Irish emigrants to Quebec in the years 1823 and 1825. In 1823, Dr Dickson accompanied settlers on the Hebe , and they proceeded from Quebec to Montreal on the steamboat Lady Sherbrooke . Peter Robinson and Dr Hamilton (RN) accompanied the settlers on Stakesby , and they proceeded from Quebec to Montreal on the steamboat New Swiftsure . Most of the emigrants were chosen from the area north of the Blackwater River in Cork from the estates of a few landlords, though a number of the Kinsella family, presumably from the southeast of Ireland, also went. Eight landowners chose 239 families with 37 other landowners picking the remaining 68 families. Emigrants were required to be peasants, and Roman Catholic, although several Protestant families were chosen. No person over the age of

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

45 would be accepted. Each emigrant was to be given 70 acres which would be subject to a payment of an annual quit rent to the Crown, to be paid every six months at 2 pence per acre. (Montreal newspapers – The Ships List ). * Two-Boaters Acadian Recorder Nov 29,1823: some Irish and others were probably coming in from Newfoundland. In the Acadian Recorder of this date, it is noted that two ships, the schooner St. John's Packet and the schooner Mayflower, bound from Newfoundland to Halifax, with passengers, were wrecked, the first off Newfoundland and the other off Cape Breton. Only three people lost their lives. It was all too common for Irish emigrants in Newfoundland, finding lack of opportunity and dismal conditions during the winter, to move to other BNA locales for the winter or longer.

1824 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage

Emigrants

Source

SIR JAMES KEMPT ST CHARLES

A Patterson 17 Apr

Quebec 2 Jun 1824 Quebec 3 Jun 1824 Quebec 11 Jun Quebec 12 Jun Quebec 25 Jun Quebec 1 Aug Quebec 20 Aug 1824 Quebec 8 Sep 1824 Quebec 26 Sep Quebec 4 Oct Quebec 25 Oct 1824 New York 28 Dec 1824

18 settlers

2 8

J Leslie

3 May

30 settlers + Mr. Robinson 37 settlers 3 settlers 40 settlers 16 settlers 37 settlers + Rev Crawly 10 settlers

2 8

GALES

W Dawson 11 May

2 8 2 8 2 8 2 8 2 8

MARGARET WELLINGTON

Thomas

2 May

Leppington 16 May

UNION

G Hurlow John Mills Henry Bowman

2 Jun 18 Jul

ALCHYMIST

CERES

30 Jul

2 8 9

ST CHARLES

J Leslie

15 Aug 22 Aug 28 Aug

4 settlers 8 settlers 12 settlers

2 8 2 8 2 8

JOHN HOWARD Tisdall

ALBION

William Stewart R Almy

GEM

emigrants

4 8

B-LIST

– RELATED NEWS and EVENTS * Cork Shipping

Wellington survived a violent storm on a return trip to Cork, arriving back in Cove with a replacement Master, J Kelleher, and, after extensive repairs, he assumed the regular command of Wellington 1827-33. Alchymist of Cork completed her second Quebec voyage of the season on 20 Aug 1824.

PART I CALENDAR OF CORK EMIGRANT SHIP SAILINGS 1815-60

* Correspondence about assisted emigration In1824 Peter Robinson produced an excellent lengthy report on Cork emigrant settlement in Upper Canada in 1823, which can be found on The Ships List site. The Mississippi River is referenced in the communication, which may cause some confusion – this author believes that it should have read the Mississagi River in Upper Canada. * Port of Quebec Information Comparative Statement: Arrivals at the Port of Quebec on 13 September 1823 and 1824. Year No. of Vessels Tonnage Settlers 1823 405 98,505 9,751 1824 491 122,663 6,348 1825 A-LIST

Ship

Captain

Cork Dep

Arrival

Voyage Emigrants

Source

CERES

Henry Bowman

St John’s NFL 12 May 1825 Quebec 14 May 1825 New York 21 May 1825 Quebec 12 Jun Quebec 15 Jun Quebec 21 Jun 1825 Quebec 1 Jul Quebec 3 Jul New York 22 Aug 1825 Quebec 4 Sep Quebec 2 Sep 1825 Quebec 17 Sep Quebec 18 Sep Quebec 30 Oct

passengers 2 8

JOHN HOWARD P Bruce

7 Apr

123 settlers 2 8

WILLIAM

C Harris

104 emigrants

4 8

RESOLUTION

Anthony Ward 11 May

227 settlers 2 8 187 settlers 1 2 8 149 settlers 1 2 8 209 settlers 1 2 8 253 settlers 2 8

ALBION AMITY

John Mills William Arrowsmith J Morrison Peter Roach S Nicholls

11 May 17 May 21 May 23 May 11 Jul 17 Jul 4 Aug 7 Aug 1 Sep 15 Jun

ELIZABETH JOHN BARRY SCHUYKILL

100 emigrants 36 settlers 10 passengers 31 settlers 29 settlers 3 settlers

4 8

NELSON GEORGE & MARY

G Agar G Hurlow

2 8 2 8

TRIO

J Leslie

2 8

JOHN HOWARD P Bruce

1 2 8

WALLSEND HYLTON

R Burleiston Wilson or T Hudson?

2 8

St John NB 1825 St John NB

passengers 1 8

ANN

Sly

19 Jul

passengers 1 8

B-LIST Favourite Brunswick

– of Waterford arrived at Quebec from Cork 19 May with 21 settlers. – of London sailed from Cork for Quebec 11 May with 353 settlers. Arrived 12 Jun 1825. – of Bristol arrived at Quebec from Cork 19 Jun with 157 settlers.

Regulus

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